Oven containing sediment samples.
Hello, my name is Jared Gray and I am interning in a lab at the University of Arizona inside of the Gould Simpson Building, which is the geosciences department building. My mentor is Professor Jonathan Overpeck who is the director of the Institute of the Environment, as well the Thomas R. Brown Distinguished Professor of Science and a Regents’ Professor of Geosciences, Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences. He received his BA from Hamilton College and earned his MSc and PhD from Brown University.
The lab will be analyzing a sediment core from a Nepali lake through multiple types of tests. LOI (loss of ignition), charcoal analysis (recording the amount of charcoal particles in a sample), carbon dating, and finding the elemental composition of a sample. The ultimate goal is to figure out the last 500 years of drought history around where the sample was taken.
Sediment core sample from a Nepali lake.
My job is to perform LOI which is to cook a sediment sample in an oven at multiple temperatures (110, 550 and 1000 degrees Celsius) to dry the sediment, to burn organic carbon, and to burn inorganic carbon at their respective temperatures. In between each of these processes, the weight of the sample is recorded to provide useful information about the core.
Overall the lab is a very great experience, and I am having a great time.
In light of the dangerous heat wave the Southwest has experienced, should we move north to Alaska? How do ice core samples from Greenland differ from those in Antarctica?